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Local News

For the first time in history, The Gadsden County Times went pink. The occasion was Pink Paper Day to kick off October as National Breast Cancer Awareness Month. Our readers were shocked with the color, but appreciated the edition, which contained features of local women battling breast cancer as well as survivors.

A Gadsden County nurseryman, Richard May, was selected as a state finalist for Florida’s Farm Bureau 2012 Achievement in Agriculture Award. May, the production manager for May Nursery, was one of three nominees for the award.

With August came a lot of excitement in the political world. Early voting kicked off Aug. 4 and ended Aug. 11, with the primary election day coming Aug. 14. Voters, who had been mailed sample ballots, found the process easier with the required identification.

Non-profit organizations had a scare after the members of the Gadsden County Board of Commissioners thought they would have to slash all non-profits after an initial look at finances during the early budgeting process.

In a changing testing environment with standards being raised and test scores tumbling statewide, Gadsden County’s elementary schools continued to perform well in mathematics. With the release of all FCAT scores for grades 4 through 8 for mathematics, reading and science, 61 percent of Gadsden County fourth-graders were proficient in math, beating the state average of 60 percent. In fifth grade, 58 percent of Gadsden County students were proficient in math, exceeding the state average of 57 percent.

The closely watched murder trial of Kevin Marquis Johnson ended before it began in early May. Johnson, who brutally beat 92-year-old Eunice “Sunny” Lester in her front yard Dec. 17, 2010, pled guilty. He was sentenced to two life sentences plus 30 years by Circuit Judge Jonathan Sjostrom.

Johnson entered a guilty plea to all charges on the first day of jury selection. The state intended to seek the death penalty if he had been found guilty.

For more than 10 years, Gary Murray has come upon his livestock, discovering carcasses slaughtered and beheaded in or near their pens. His outbuildings have been vandalized, electrical wiring and copper tubing has been stolen and wild dogs seem to have set their sights on his property. But Dec. 23 has been the worst.

Negotiations continued between the Gadsden County Board of Commissioners and National Solar Power. Following a Feb. 21 workshop, which included public comment and commissioners’ concerns, a draft developer agreement was forwarded to NSP.

But just before a regular meeting when the issue was to come up for discussion, the company sent a response to the county’s proposal, which stalled the agreement further.

It’s a long way from the old James A. Shanks High School to the Pentagon.

Just ask Quincy native U.S. Army Major Gen. Frederick B. “Ben” Hodges, a graduate of Shanks.

Hodges came home in March to the delight of many and visited the school. Classmates remembered him as a big, blond kid, smart in school with a good sense of humor. From the James A. Shanks Class of 1976, he went to West Point and graduated from the United States Military Academy in 1980.

Patricia Stephens Due, civil rights icon, lost her courageous battle with thyroid cancer Feb. 7. She was 72. She passed in a nursing home in Smyrna, Ga., surrounded by loved ones.

She led the first jail-in in the nation in 1960, refusing to make bail for her arrest at a Woolworth lunch counter in Tallahassee. The jail-in caught the attention of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Jackie Robinson, who praised her for her courage and wrote her encouraging letters.